Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VI, Part 65

Author:
Publication date: 1838
Publisher: [Harrisburg] : By the State
Number of Pages: 814

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"But the Governor is pleased to tell us not only that we charged him with an Estimate that he never saw, but likewise that we ' charged him with a Demand that he never made.' We happen, however, to have the original Letter from his Commissioners, which he laid before the House on the ninth of August, wherein are these words : "Shippensburg, August 4th, 1755. Honoured Sir,-We have appointed a meeting of the Commissioners for the Roads lead- ing to the Ohio at this Town to-day in order to fall upon Measures to provide Money for the payment of the Labourers, &ca-, employed in the service of the Roads, and we have thought of this Expedient (with submission to your Honour's better Judgment) that some per- son or persons should be appointed by your Honour to bring up Money and to be satisfied with our Settlement of the Accounts. We cannot at present inform your Honour of the just sum of Money that will be wanted for the above purpose, but we think it will amount to Five thousand pounds. As the people are much in want of Money, we should be glad how soon the Money can be sent, &ca .? This Letter was signed by the Six Commissioners and sent down to the House by the Governor, to what End unless that we might fur- nish him with the sum required? Yet now he knows nothing of this Demand, and is pleased to say 'it could not have been then made by any one, because the accounts were not come in,' as if a Demand in part was a thing impossible before a Settlement. The accounts, however, are at length come in and under Examination, and it will now soon be seen what cause we shall have to commend the Governor's or the Commissioners' frugality, and we hope we shall not be backward to do it Justice.

"The Governor's Judgment of our motives to engage in this work of opening the Road seems to us a very uncharitable one, but

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we hope to find more equitable Judgment elsewhere. We are obliged to him, however, for owning that we did engage in it at all. For as he is pleased to lay it down as a Maxim that we are very wicked people, he has shewn in other instances, when we have done any good, that he thinks it no more injustice to us to deny the Facts than now to deny the goodness of our Motives. He would, how- ever, think himself ill used if any part of his Zeal in that affair was ascribed to the Menaces directed to him, or to a view of accommo- dating by the new Road the Lands of the Proprietaries new pur- chase, & by that means encreasing the Value of their Estate at our Expence.

" The Governor is next pleased to tell us 'that we have taken great pains to infuse into the minds of the people, particularly the Germans, that the Government have Designs to abridge them of their privileges and to reduce them to a State of Slavery ; That this may and will alienate their affections from his Majesty's Gov- ernment, and destroy that Confidence in the Crown and its Dele- gates, which at this Time is particularly necessary, and render all the Foreigners among us very indifferent as to the success of the French attempts upon this Continent, as they cannot be in worse circumstances under them than we have taught them to expect from the King's Government.' And a little lower he tells us 'That we scruple not to stir up his Majesty's Subjects against his Government, forgetting all duty to our Sovereign, and all Decency to those in Authority under him. These are very heavy Charges indeed ! But can the Governor possibly expect that any body will believe them ? Can he even believe them himself? We can in- deed truly say with Confidence, and the Governor may, if he pleases, call it 'our usual Confidence,' that there is not a more dutiful, loyal, and affectionate people to any Prince on earth than are the people not only of this Colony but of all other British Colonies in America, to the best of Kings his present Majesty, and we can- not, therefore, forbcar to say that this charge is a virulent calumny destitute of all truth and probability. But what must we do to please this kind Governor who takes so much pains to render us obnoxious to our Sovereign and odious to our Fellow Subjects ? Must we bear silently all these abuses ? 'Tis too hard. But if we deny his accusations and, prove them false, this he calls 'forgetting all Decency to our Governor;' and if we complain of his treat- ment, that is 'stirring up his Majesty's Subjects against his Government." No, may it please the Governor, we make a wide Distinction between the King's Government and the Governor's conduct, and we have reason. Every Deputy Governor is not the Prince, and some are very indifferent Representatives of him. Every dislike of a Governor's Behaviour is not a dislike of Govern- ment, nor every censure of a Governor Disaffection to the King. And, indeed, the more a people love their Prince and admire his Vir- tues, the less they must Esteem a Governor who acts unlike him.

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"That there is a Design in the Proprietaries and Governor to abridge the people here of their privileges is no secret. The Proprietaries have avowed it in their Letter to the House dated London, March 2nd, 1741. The Doctrine that it is necessary is publickly taught in their Brief State, and the Governor himself has told us that we have more than is suitable for a dependant Colony. It is these proceedings that give Jealousy to the people, but do not, however, alienate their affections from his Majesty's Government though they may from the Proprietaries. Their 'con- fidence in the Crown' is as great as ever, but when the Delegates of power are continually abusing and calumniating the people, it is no wonder if they lose all ' Confidence' in such Delegates.

"The Governor can think himself at Liberty to tell us that 'we stir up his Majesty's subjects against his Majesty's Government, forgetting all Duty to our Sovereign,' and yet if we only tell him that the Difficulties he meets with are not owing to those Causes, which indeed have no existence, but to his own want of Skill and abilities for his Station, he takes it extremely amiss and says 'we forget all Decency to those in authority.' We are apt to think there is likewise some Decency due to the Assembly as a part of the Government, and though we have not, like the Governor, had a courtly Education, but are plain men & must be very imperfect in our politeness, yet we think we have no chance of improving by his Example. Skill and abilities to govern we apprehend fall to the share of few ; they may possibly be acquired by study and practice, but are not infused into a man with his Commission; he may with- out them be a wise and able man in other affairs and a very good man in general. But those 'who stir up his Majesty's Subjects against his Government and forget all Duty to their Sovereign,' as the Governor says we do, must be traiters and rebels, a character that includes the highest folly with the greatest wickedness. The World will judge which of these Charges is most decent as well as most true, and we shall leave it to their Judgment.

"The Governor is pleased to repeat the charge of our 'taking upon us great and mighty powers' and to say, since you call upon me to particularize them I shall gratify you. We apprehend it is rather to gratify himself, for least these particulars should seem to be brought in improperly, the Governor says, we call upon him for them. We cannot find any such Call in our Message, but if there were it was a very unnecessary one, for the Governor has so accustomed us to find some of these charges in almost every Mess- age, and so delights in renewing them after repeated refutations, that we might have expected them as matters of Course. You have created a paper Currency of your own, &ca. This stale charge was fully refuted in our Message of the seventeenth of May last, and now repeated without taking the least notice of that Refutation. You pay your own wages out of the Provincial money when the

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Law requires and provides for their being paid in another manner. This charge is premature, as we have not yet paid ourselves any wages out of any money. We gave the Governor, indeed, Five hun- dred pounds out of this Provincial Money, tho' the Law requires and provides for his being supported by Licenses of publick Houses, Fees, &ca., but that he might be sure of being right he took both. The plain state of the matter is this: By the County Levy act, the Commissioners and Assessors are directed 'to adjust and settle the sum and sums of money which ought of necessity to be raised Yearly to pay for Representatives' Service in General Assembly, and to de- fray the charges of Building and repairing of Court-Houses, Prisons, Work-houses, Bridges, and Cause-ways, and for destroying of Wolves, &ca., and to lay a Tax for these purposes.' But other acts of Assem- bly having directed that the provincial Money arising from the Loan Office & excise 'shall be disposed of as the Assembly of this Pro- vince shall direct and appoint,' former Assemblies have for many Years past paid Provincial charges and the publick salaries out of that Provincial Money, and among others their own small wages. Hence, it happened that the Wages being otherways paid the Com- missioners and Assessors found no necessity of raising a Tax for that purpose, and therefore have not done it, being no more obliged to do it without such necessity than to tax for building Court Houses when they have them already built, or to repair them when they need no Repairs, or to pay for Wolves heads when none are killed. As to the other charge of not keeping the Borrowers in the Loan office strictly up to their yearly payments as the Law required, We beg leave to say that we cannot think this House is strictly account- able for all the Faults of their any more than the Governor for the faults of his Predecessors, nor that every forbearing to execute a Law is properly called dispensing with Law. If it were, the Executive power in most Governments is greatly chargeable with the same Of- fence. For our parts, when the Governor is pleased to load with this charge, we did in May last expressly ordered the Trustees to use the utmost of their Care and Diligence to collect the outstanding Quotas and, to quicken them, drew orders on them nearly for the amount; but as a severe Execution of that Law would in some cases have been extreamly injurious, as the Evil had been almost imperceptibly grow- ing and gradually stole upon the Assemblies in a long course of Years, and as a sudden sale of all delinquent Estates to recover their respec- tive Quotas would have been the ruin of many, and no Depreciation of the Money or other considerable Inconvenience has followed the forbearance, we conceive that former Trustees and Assemblies, who gained nothing to themselves by this Indulgence of the people, tho' not free from blame, deserves a less severe censure than the Gover- ner is disposed to throw upon them. The charge, perhaps, amounts to little more than this, that they did not exact from the people the payments that by Law they ought to have exacted, which the Gov- ernor calls dispening with a Law. They are not, however, charge-

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able with exacting Money from the people which by law they had no right to exact, as we apprehend the Governor does in the Fees for Marriages Licenses, by which many thousand Pounds have been drawn from the Inhabitants of this Province. If this be not dis- pensing with Law 'tis making Law, and we presume the Governor alone has no more right to do the one than the Assembly alone the other. The last of this string of charges, 'that we have taken upon us to administer the affirmation to our Clerk, and several of our Members not Quakers,' is a total mistake in point of Fact. As an Assembly we disclaim any Right of administering either an Affirmation or an Oath, and have never administered an oath or affirmation to our Clerk or any Member, but whenever an oath or affirmation is administered in the House it is done by a Justice of the Peace, And our Members are always qualified according to Law.

" The Governor is pleased to say, 'we have often mentioned what we have done to promote the Success of his Majesty's Arms under General Braddock.' We own that we have often mentioned this, but we have been forced to it by the Governor's asserting as often in his Messages, contrary to known Fact, that we had done nothing and would do nothing of that kind. But it seems we take to our- selves the services of particular men, in which the Governor says we had no hand, and adds, ' that had we in time opened the proper Roads, raised men, and provided Carriages and necessary provisions for the Troops, we might now have been in peacable possession of Fort Du Quesne.' We beg leave to ask the Governor, Has the Body no share in what is done by its Members? Has the House no hand in what is done by its Committees ? Has it no hand in what is done by Virtue of its own Resolves and orders ? Did we not many weeks before the Troops arrived vote Five Thousand pounds for purchasing fresh victuals and other necessaries for their use? Did we not even borrow money on our own Credit to purchase those provisions when the Governor had rejected our Bill? Will the Governor deny this when he himself once charged it upon us as a Crime ? Were not the provisions actually pur- chased by our Committee the full Quantity required by the Com- missary, and carried by Land to Virginia at our Expence even be- fore they were wanted ? Did the army ever want Provisions till they had abandoned or destroyed them ? Are there not even now some scores of Tons of it lying at Fort Cumberland and Conego- chieg? Did the Governor ever mention the opening of Roads to us before the Eighteenth of March, tho' the Requisition was made to him by the Quarter Master General in January ? Did we not in a few days after send him up a Bill to provide for the Expence, which he refused ? Did not the Governor proceed, nevertheless, to appoint Commissioners and engage Labourers for opening the Road, whom we afterwards agreed to pay out of the Money we happened to have in our power? Did the work ever stop a moment through

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any Default of ours ? Was the Road ever intended for a March of the Troops to the Ohio? Was it not merely to open a communica- tion with this Province for the more convenient supplying them with Provisions when they should be arrived there? Did they wait in the least for this Road? Had they not as many men as they wanted, & many from this Province ? Were they not more numerous than the Enemy they went to oppose, even after the General had left near half his army fifty miles behind him ? Were not all the carriages they demanded, being one hundred and fifty, engaged, equipt, and sent forward in a few days after the Demand, and many at Wills' Creek many days before the army was ready to march? With what face then of Probability can the Governor undertake to say 'That had we in time opened the proper roads, raised Men, and provided Carriages and necessary Provisions for the Troops, we might now have been in peacable possession of Fort Du Quesne ?'

"The Governor is pleased to doubt our having such letters as we mentioned, we are, therefore, in our own vindication under a necessity of quoting to him some part of them, and will shew him the originals whenever he shall please to require it. The General's Secretary, in his Letter of the tenth of May to one of our Mem- bers (who in pursuance of a Resolve of the House for the service of the Army waited on the General at Frederick, and there occa- sionally undertook the furnishing of Waggons, which he performed with the assistance of some other Members of the Committee, and for that and other services to the Troops received the Thanks of the House at his return), says, ' You have done us great service in the Execution of the Business you have kindly undertaken, and indeed without it I don't see how the service could have been carried on, as the Expectations from Maryland have come to nothing.' And again, in his Letter of May the 14th, 'The General orders me to acquaint you that he is greatly obliged to you for the great care and readiness with which you have executed the Business you under- took for him. At your request he will with pleasure discharge the Servants that may have inlisted in the Forces under his Command, or any others to whom you may desire a Discharge, and desires that you would for that purpose send him their Names;' and again in his Letter of May the twentieth, ' I have only time to thank you once more in the name of the General and every body concerned for the Ser- vice You have done, which has been conducted throughout with the greatest prudence and most generous Spirit for the public Service.' The General's own Letter, dated the twenty-ninth of May, mentions and acknowledges the provisions 'given by the Pennsylvania As- sembly' [tho' the Governor will allow us to have had ' no hand' in it], and says, 'Your regard for his Majesty's service and assistance to the present Expedition deserve my sincerest Thanks,' &ca. Colo- nel Dunbar writes in his Letter of May the thirteenth concerning the present of Refreshments and carriage horses sent up for the

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Subalturns, 'I am desired by all the Gentlemen who the Com- mittee have been so good as to think of in so genteel a manner, to return them their hearty thanks ;' and again, on the twenty-first of May, ' Your kind present is now all arrived, and shall be equally divided to-morrow between Sir Peter Halket's Subalterns and mine, which I apprehend will be agreeable to the Committee's intent. This I have made known to the officers of both Regiments, who unanimously desire me to return the generous Benefactors their most hearty thanks, to which be pleased to add mine, &ca,;' and Sir Peter Halket in his of the twenty-third of May says, 'The Officers of my Regiment are most sensible of the Favours conferred on the Subalterns by your Assembly, who have made them so well-timed and so handsome a present. At their request and Desire I return their Thanks, and to the acknowledgements of the Officers beg leave to add mine, which you, I hope, will do me the favour for the whole to offer to the Assembly, and to assure them that we shall on every occasion do them the Justice due for so seasonable and well judged an act of Generosity.' There are more of the same kind, but these may suffice to shew that we had 'some hand in what was done,' and that we did not, as the Governor supposes, deviate from the Truth, when in our just and necessary vindication against his Groundless, cruel, and repeated Charge, 'that we had refused the proper, necessary, & timely assistance to an Army sent to protect the Colonies,' we alledged 'that we had supplied that army plentifully with all they asked of us, and more than all, and had Letters from the late General and other principal Officers ac- knowledging our care and thanking us cordially for our Services.' If the General ever wrote differently of us to the King's Ministers, it must have been while he was under the first Impressions given him by the Governor to our Disadvantage and before he knew us, and we think with the Governor that if he had lived he was too honest a Man not to have retracted those mistaken accounts of us and done us ample Justice.

"The Governor concludes with telling us 'if our minutes be ex- amined for fifteen Years past, in them will be found more frivolous Controversies, unparallelled abuses of Governors, and more undu- tifulness to the Crown, than in all the rest of his Majesty's Colo- nies put together.' The Minutes are printed and in many hands, who may Judge on examining them whether any abuses of Gover- nors and undutifulness to the Crown are to be found in them. Controversies, indeed, there are too many, but as our Assemblies are yearly changing, while our Proprietaries during that Term have remained the same, and have probably given their Governors the same Instructions, we must leave others to guess from what Root it is most likely that those Controversies should continually spring. As to frivolous Controversies we never had so many of them as since our present Governor's administration, and all raised by him- self, and we may venture to say that during that one Year, scarce

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yet expired, there have been more 'unparallelled abuses' of this people and their Representatives in Assembly, than in all the Years put together since the Settlement of the Province.

" We are now to take our leave of the Governor, and indeed, since he hopes no good from us nor we from him, 'tis time we should be parted. If our Constituents disapprove our Conduct, a few days will give them an opportunity of changing us by a new election, and could the Governor be as soon and as easily changed, Pennsylvania would, we apprehend, deserve much less the charac- ter he gives it, of an unfortunate Country.

"Signed by order of the House, "ISAAC NORRIS, Speaker. " September 29th, 1755."

The Governor having received a Confirmation of the entire de- feat of the French under General Deiskau in their attack of Gen- eral Johnson on Lake St. Sacrament, sent the following Message to the Indians :

" By the Honourable ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, & Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, upon Delaware,

" To all our Indian Brethren & Allies on the River Susquehannah or elsewhere within the said Province Greeting.

" Agreeable to the Treaties of Friendship between this Govern- ment and the Indian Nations, I take this first opportunity of com- municating to You the agreeable account I have received of a Battle that was fought on the 6th Instant on Lake St. Sacrament, now called Lake St. George, between General Johnson and Mon- sieur Dieskau the French General, in which the English have ob- tained the victory, and have wounded Mons". Dieskau, the General, .and taken him prisoner with his Aid-De-Camp and many of his Officers, and killed Eight hundred Soldiers. It was fought for a long time and with great Spirit on both sides, but the French were at last obliged to retreat and fly away.

"Our Brethren, the Indians, behaved extraordinary well in the action and lost some of their men, but we have not yet heard how many nor who they are, when we do we shall write you the par- ticulars.

"I most heartily congratulate all the Indians on this success of General Johnson, and have the satisfaction to acquaint You that the number of French killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, cx- ceeded the number of all the English who fell in the unfortunate action on the Banks of the Monongahela. Mons". Dieskau, now General Johnston's prisoner, was a person of extraordinary note in

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France, being a Marischal-De-Camp and Commander of all the Forces in North America.

" The request delivered by Tohashwughdonyiondy, called by the English the Belt, is now before the wise men of this Province, and he may be assured I will send him my answer as soon as I know what they will enable me to do.

"I acknowledge the receipt of Scarroyady's Letter and thank him for his Intelligence, and desire he will continue to give me the earliest accounts of every thing he judges of Importance enough for this Government to be acquainted with."

At a Council held at Philadelphia, Saturday the 4th October, 1755.

PRESENT :

Robert Strettel, Joseph Turner, Esquires. Richard Peters,

The Sheriff's having made the returns of the several Elections, the following persons were commissionated Sheriffs and Coroners for the ensuing Year :

James Coultas, Sheriff, Philadelphia County.

Thomas Boude, Coroner,

Benjamin Chapman, Sher.,

Bucks County.

Simon Butler, Coroner,

John Fairlamb, Sheriff,

Chester County.

Joshua Thompson, Coroner,

Joseph Pugh, Sheriff,

Lancaster Co'y.

Matthias Slough, Coroner,

Josph Adlum, Sheriff,

Zachariah Sugars, Coron'r.

Jnº. Potter, Sheriff,

Cumberland C'ty.

William Boone, Sheriff,

Berks Cy.

Benjamin Pearson, Coroner,

Nich8. Scull, Sheriff,

Tho8. Armstrong, Coroner,

N. Ampton Cy.

William Goldensher, Sheriff, Robert Morrison, Coroner,

Newcastle Cy:

Cæser Rodney, Sheriff, 2

French Rattle, Cor". Kent County.

Jacob Kollock, Jun". Sheriff,

Sussex Cy.

Paynter Stockley, Cor".

York County.

Ezekiel Dunning, Coron'r.

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At a Council held at Philadelphia on Thursday the 16th October, 1755.

PRESENT :

The Honourable ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, Esquire, Lieu- tenant Governor, &ca.

Robert Strettel,

William Logan,

Richard Peters,

Lynford Lardner,

Esquires.

A Message by eight members to the Governor last night that the house was met according to Charter and had chosen their Speaker, and desired to know when & where they might present him.

A Message by the Secretary that the Governor with his Council was in the Council Chamber and ready to receive the House & their Speaker.

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Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VI, Part 65

Author: Publication date: 1838 Publisher: [Harrisburg] : By the State Number of Pages: 814

Author:
Publication date: 1838
Publisher: [Harrisburg] : By the State
Number of Pages: 814